Thursday, February 16, 2012

Ministry of Education Radiation Council's Official Position: No Need for Special Standard for Food for Infants

Not surprising at all coming from the Ministry of Education, who declared 20 millisieverts per year external radiation exposure for school children would be safe and acceptable.

The Radiation Council, the organization under the Ministry of Education and Science who officially endorses the new radiation standards for foods, has already expressed its dismay on stricter standards as harming the producers. It has just made it "official".

In an unusual "opinion", the Council, staffed with nuclear industry insiders and nuclear and radiation researchers, has said the lower safety standards for infants are unnecessary, even though the Council will go along with it.

Which means, perhaps, the new safety standards will be full of "exceptions", not just beef and rice, rendering the new standards as good as the old. Not to mention the local governments may not even possess or have access to the detectors with much lower detection limits. Maybe the cheapest way to solve the conundrum is going to be the renewed PR campaign that everything sold in the market is safe.

From Jiji Tsushin (2/16/2012):

乳幼児食品基準「不要」と意見=セシウム100ベクレルで「配慮十分」-放射線審

Radiation Council: Food safety standard for infants "unnecessary", 100 Bq/kg radioactive cesium limit "sufficient consideration"

 食品に含まれる放射性セシウムの新たな規制値案について、厚生労働省から諮問を受けた文部科学省放射線審議会が16日開かれ、1キロ当たり50ベクレルとした「乳児用食品」や「牛乳」の基準について、「特別の規格基準値を設けなくても、子どもへの配慮は既に十分なされた」などとする意見が示された。

The Radiation Council of the Ministry of Education and Science was held on February 16 to discuss the new safety standards for radioactive cesium which had been submitted by the Ministry of Health and Labor for deliberation in the Council. The opinion was expressed that "there is already sufficient consideration for children even without the special safety standard", which is to be 50 becquerels/kg for "food for infants" and "milk".

 放射性物質による被ばくが懸念されている子どもへの特別な基準は不要とするもので、消費者や保護者から批判の声が上がる可能性もある。

This [formal] opinion states that there is no need for a special standard for children for whom the radiation exposure is feared from ingesting radioactive materials. It is possible that consumers and parents may criticize the Council [over the opinion].

 厚労省の新規制値案では、食事による被ばく線量の上限を年1ミリシーベルトと以前より厳しく設定。穀類や肉、野菜など「一般食品」に含まれるセシウムの規制値は1キロ当たり100ベクレル、新設される「乳児用食品」や「牛乳」は同50ベクレルなどとし、4月から導入するとしていた。これに対し、放射線審議会の意見では、1キロ当たり100ベクレルの基準で、1歳未満を含む子どもの年間被ばく線量が1ミリシーベルト以下に抑えることが十分可能なものになっていると指摘している。

In the new safety standard from the Ministry of Health and Labor, the annual internal radiation exposure limit will be set at 1 millisievert, which is stricter than the existing limit [5 millisievert]. For "food for general consumption" like grains, meat, and vegetables, the safety limit for radioactive cesium will be 100 becquerels/kg. For "food for infants" and "milk", the safety limit will be 50 becquerels/kg. The new standards are to be introduced in April. However, in the opinion of the Radiation Council, the 100 becquerels/kg standard is already sufficient to keep the annual radiation exposure for children including infants less than 1 year old to less than 1 millisievert.

The first sentence of the last paragraph is not exactly true. 1 millisievert annual limit from internal radiation exposure from food is only about radioactive cesium.

The current provisional safety limit for radioactive cesium, 500 Bq/kg, would result in maximum 5 millisieverts annual internal radiation exposure from food, which the media started to report only toward the end of last year to the surprise of many in Japan. (My Japanese blog had written about it in April last year, but not many people were reading my blog back then.)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

idiots

Anonymous said...

with food containing between 20bq to 350,000bq of radiation per kg, most japanese will ingest much more than 500bq of cesium per year. Also note that contamination should also add the quantity of other radionuclide (not only cesium) such as kadnium, plutonium, americinium, technotium, etc.. etc... etc...
This will more than double the total contamination that is described. Specially the radionuclides I listed because they cause higher rates of sickness in msvr than cesium and iodine. The rule 500 Bq/kg would result in maximum 5 millisieverts is only good for cesium under specific -unrealistic- conditions. Technotium for example causes much more damage than 5 millisieverts for 500 bq/kg ingested.

Anonymous said...

I have just read a comment on the physics forum stating that there is no bioaccumulation of cesium in the body. Could someone please confirm this. Surely this comment is incorrect. I mean if it doesn’t accumulate in the body why are people worried about cesium contamination?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Oh boy. Even the Japanese government and government researchers stop saying that.

Anonymous said...

So they let their pepole eat poisend food? And what do they good people of Japan do? Right, they just eat it.
No demonstrations, no strikes, no protests, no nothing. Only a small group of concerned people with some brain functions apparently, are doing something about it. Next ellection? All these clowns will be voted again and again and again. How is it possible ? Simple, the infamous 'group metality' is one of the goverments most powerfull tools. They start with that at kindergarten already. Of course it has it's bright sights, but what about the not so bright sights...???
A discusion about this topic is a uphill battle in Japan, they are so brainwashed, and so pround of 'their culture' that any critic about this, will be laughed away.
Stupid? Well, if you are brought up like that, it's not stupid all. The only thing is now, it will kill you and your kids first...
But that is after 5 years, and at that time nobody knows anything anymore about Fukushima. Most of the Japanese do not know much about it anyway. So, problem solved!
It's that simple for the Japanese goverment. Goverment happy, cooperations happy. Tepco happy and the Japanese pleople are told to smile more so they do not get sick...So they are happy too. Everybody is happy, what else do you want?

Anonymous said...

Dumb stupid Japanese , no critical thinking skills whatsoever

Anonymous said...

so brainwashed, and so proud of 'their culture'

The sickened zombie of corporate sense is telling us 'their culture' is clever. Are they able to parody 'location, location, location' and poke fun at 400 Chernobyls ??
That appears essentially to be the game they ARE playing.

Sickened zombies.

Perhaps they must with the prospect of Chinese Chernobyls upwind of themselves.

Anonymous said...

Don't think this would only happen in Japan. The same thing is happening in Canada. Our government has been outed twice for lying to us and downplaying the severity of this disaster. They refuse to test the milk despite the request for testing by farmers. Even universities refuse to test soil. It is very frustrating trying to warn people here as they just won't believe there is a problem because the MSM doesn't talk about it. It is a world wide conspiracy by the Nuclear industry to shut everyone up. March 21st 2:30pm PST all the MSM pulled out of Japan and shut up, even Al Jazeera shut down their blog on Japan.

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